Statistical analysis
Continuous variables were presented as means and standard deviations, or
medians and interquartile ranges for variables with skewed
distributions, and categorical variables as frequencies and percentages.
Normal distribution was confirmed using Shapiro-Wilk test. Categorical
variables were compared using Fisher’s exact test or the Chi-square
test, as appropriate, while t-independent test and Mann-Whitney test
were used to compare parametric and non-parametric independent samples,
respectively. P -values <0.05 were considered
statistically significant. Analyses were performed with the use of IBM
SPSS software (version 25.0).